Quick Review: One more random find that I came across while perusing the local Meijer on vacation, I honestly was just sort of so-so about Hudsonville’s take on this frozen pumpkin dessert. I mean, the flavor was there and all – not fantastic, not horrible – but moreover, I guess I just didn’t really care for the consistency of this ice cream. It was almost too milky and as such, I want to say that the flavors felt just a little watered down as a result.

Either way, I only ended up having the one bowl because desserts were aplenty and we were leaving two days later, but final verdict – not impressed.

Foreign Find: Anyone who follows me on Twitter or maybe reads my blog knows that I’m currently roaming the countryside on Christmas vacation to visit family and whatnot. Of course, an added perk of visiting such far-off lands is also discovering fresh, new pumpkin delicacies as well, sometimes even in the likes of expressway travel plazas…

Deliciousness Revealed: I had actually considered ordering some of these right to my doorstep because I couldn’t seem to find them anywhere in Florida, but it seemed a bit tricky to justify ordering an entire case of them to my wife! In hindsight, however, had I any idea that these are actually awesome, I would’ve figured out a way to sway her opinion because despite their tiny, travel-sized form, these Pumpkin Tastykakes are probably some of the best pumpkin pies I’ve ever tasted!

The Flavor Experience: Soft and flaky crust, smooth and creamy filling, with just the right blend of pumpkin and pumpkin-like spices – it honestly saddens me that it took me four whole years to discover these incredible treats because they’re certainly a pumpkin dessert force to be reckoned with! So yummy…

More to Come???: With less than week left in this 4th year of proud pumpkin reviews, it seems only fitting to go out with a bang. Viva la pumpkin!

Christmastime is Here!: And frankly, it just didn’t seem right to have all of these Christmas cookies around the house and not have some sort of pumpkin variety to include in packages to friends and family in the mix as well!

The Goal: Now having based my expectations solely off of the picture and not actually reading the recipe ahead of time, I actually was assuming these to be just like those classic peanut butter blossoms, except with pumpkin, however when I pulled the dough out of the refrigerator and found it to be nowhere near the consistency that one could shape into actual balls, that’s when I finally realized that these were going to be a tiny bit different! Reading is Fundamental, kids…

The Result: The cookies are much more cake-like than the firmer, traditional variety – almost kind of resembling the texture of one of my Mom’s cookies, though not nearly as dense. The Pumpkin Spice Kisses do a good job of bringing the pumpkin flavor to the forefront, though – nearly overpowering whatever flavors are to be found in the cookies themselves! These definitely have a bit more weight to them than those peanut butter blossoms, and I don’t think I could snack on nearly as many throughout an afternoon before grinding to a halt!

Then again, maybe that’s really in my best interests anyways…

Walmart Bakery Again … Seriously?: Yep.

Should I Have Been That Surprised When It Didn’t Even Taste Remotely Like Pumpkin?: Nope.

Anything to Say for Yourself, Young Man???: For what it’s worth, the cream filling actually tasted a little better than others I’ve tried in the past, but … I know … this site isn’t called Love Me Some Cream Filling or anything…

Disney Locale: found at, well, the funnel cake booth near the American Pavilion around World Showcase at Epcot

Funnel Cake Fan?: Well, normally I am not, mainly because these things are an absolute mess to eat and there aren’t many places outdoors to really sit down. Still, it was pumpkin!

Right Dessert, Right Time: Although it didn’t have that overwhelming pumpkin flavor that I like to see from my pumpkin prizes, it smelled great and was still yummy enough that my wife and I had little trouble finishing the whole thing. We had actually just finished watching the Candlelight Processional and it had rained like crazy for most of it, so granted our enjoyment also contained a healthy mixture of being happy and being out of the rain … and my wife did like it (who doesn’t like “pumpkiny pumpkin stuff”), so weigh that as you must … but it was still a decent effort and I certainly wouldn’t hesitate to grab another one should I find myself hungry and/or waterlogged at Epcot on a cool winter’s night…

Learn to Follow Directions: I’m actually surprised that this one turned out as well as it did because I kind of forgot to melt the butter first and then tried to make up for it by scooping out the unmixable remains and just heating those, to no avail … so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I first opened the oven door after making these things…

Actually Lives Up to Its Name!: It’s sad when I’ve become cynical to the point where I’m impressed when a pumpkin product actually tastes like pumpkin around here, but true to its name, these little treats most definitely did taste just like pumpkin pie – consistency, flavor, the whole nine yards! I also rather enjoyed the “gingerbread crust,” as it added a unique sweetness that you don’t normally see combined with pumpkin, but it actually quite nice this time of year with the rest of the holiday spirit.

Shopper’s Tip: Even if you’re not really in the mood for pumpkin now, pick up a box and throw it in the pantry while you continue onward with your regularly scheduled cookie crusade! Come April when you’ve finally run out of Christmas cookies, you won’t be able to find a trace of these things at Walmart anymore and you’ll be glad that you stowed away a little pumpkin fun to help those April showers pass…

My Wife, Still Awesome: Life has been a little crazy and hectic for me lately and I’ve been sitting on a bunch of stuff to bake since mid-October, so the other night my wife decided to be extra cool and bake these cookies up as a surprise to me for dessert! Extra bonus points because she doesn’t actually care much for pumpkin herself…

The Taste: Moist, chewy, delicious, and the cream cheese frosting was a nice touch … but the pumpkin spice wasn’t nearly what I was hoping for and certainly would never hold a candle to these little beauties! Not terrible, mind you, and good in a jiff when you’ve only got 30 minutes and don’t feel like breaking out the can opener, but certainly not a shining beacon of pumpkin-inity, either.

The Quantity: P.S. What size cookies do they actually expect you to be baking when they put “Makes 3 dozen cookies” on the side of the bag??? Ok, so I guess from the picture it does actually cite 2 inches, but that’s like barely any cookie at all! Other than Oreos, what 2-inch cookies have you ever actually enjoyed eating?

Leftovers: So here’s one that despite having picked it up for Thanksgiving, I’ll freely admit that I’m just now getting around to enjoying … and for those of you who are now scratching your heads saying, “Who in their right mind takes four days to get around to eating a Cheesecake Factory cheesecake?!”, well, my bad…

But in My Defense!: We did have a ridiculous amount of food – as in, more desserts than entries and side dishes combined-level of ridiculous!

No Excuse!: You’re right, though – there really is no excuse because even though I’ve passed on this one many times in the past simply because The Cheesecake Factory’s prices are also quite ridiculous, as all of the recipients of anyone who went out shopping on Black Friday will tell you on December 26th – you get what you pay for, and in this case, $12.95 at Target purchased us the cheesecake equivalent of heaven. And I’m sure that I’ve had their cheesecake in the actual restaurants before, though I can’t recall precisely when at the moment, but if anyone is doubting that their same signature quality could also be packaged for easy pickup at your local big box store … you’re wrong, it’s excellent.

Mmmmm: I mean, seriously – this has got to be the smoothest, creamiest cheesecake I’ve ever tasted. The graham cracker crust crumbles a sweet taste of honey in your mouth, even further accentuating the golden creme that is the delectable pumpkin filling in the center. If this website was solely devoted to cheesecakes, I could pretty much just close up shop after this review and call it a day…

…but it’s not, so I won’t! Still, it’s a delicious premium well worth saving your allowance for, and really, my only fault was being too afraid of the price tag to make this one of the very first pumpkin reviews I ever did. We’ve seen a lot of great pumpkin products so far in 2011, but this might just very well be the one to beat…

Also Known As…: The Three-Dollar Pumpkin Pie

Admission: So truth be told, this particular post is actually the pumpkin counterpart to a humor column that I posted earlier today poking fun at Black Friday and the expectation of quality for something that you’re literally paying $3 for. When I saw this in the store, I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself wondering just what a three-dollar pumpkin pie actually tastes like…

The Verdict: Much like I wouldn’t trust the three dollar waffle maker to not burn my kitchen down shortly after its inaugural breakfast commenced, if my choices were A) serve this $3 pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, or B) don’t serve pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, being the pumpkin aficionado that I am, the only answer I could possibly bring myself to would actually be … C) pick up a box of Jell-O pumpkin pudding and a graham cracker shell instead and make something myself because this one was just … bleeech.

The top has this creepy, sort of skin over the top that reminded me of crappily made pudding, the innards are somewhat tolerable, although it took several bites to get past the aftertaste of the skin, and the “crust” … well, as you can see in the picture, there actually really wasn’t much of a crust at all because it was either barely present or broken off long before I ever even got it out of the box.

Also, the crust on the bottom of the pie was surprisingly dry, which I found odd considering it was covered by an inch and a half of pumpkin.

It just wasn’t a good pie, ok?!

Money may not be able to buy happiness, but at least it can buy you a better pumpkin pie than this bargain basement blunder…

First and Foremost…: Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Introduction: As you might expect, this was one of several pumpkin desserts on the dinner menu this holiday season at my house, and the only one that actually required assembly, in fact! It actually wasn’t too bad at all, though – aside from the actual baking (which I’ll get to in a minute…), the assembly process took a matter of minutes and even a child could’ve done it, really.  You can see from the picture that I did omit the almond topping because nobody in my house actually likes almonds, but the rest was pretty much by the book…

I Hate Convection Ovens: I mentioned earlier this year that we had moved into a house that has a convection oven instead of a traditional one, and now that I’ve had plenty of time to experiment with it, I can safely say 7 months later that I absolutely hate the thing. The majority of my pans don’t work in it because they need to be able to spin and anything rectangular can’t, which limits me to a small number of square and circle 9×9 pans at best, and a pizza pan that has become my de facto cookie sheet.  I fear the weekend when we have to bake Christmas cookies because it’s going to take forever…

But anyways, I tried using my old, rectangular 13×9 pan for this … basically because I forgot about the limitations until after I had put it in the oven … and by the time I was done, I had cooked it for nearly twice as long as the recipe recommends, including physically turning the pan around when one side was starting to burn while the other was still raw.  And maybe there are other convection ovens that don’t require turntables and as a result are awesomely efficient baking machines, but this one sucks and it’ll be the first thing I throw out the window if the house that we eventually buy happens to have one installed!

</rant>

So Anyways…: Nonetheless, despite my baking mishaps, the end result of this pumpkin/caramel/cream cheese thing actually tasted pretty good.  I was a little unsure of what to expect from the frosting because it seemed like there was a ton of it, but the flavors blended really well with the caramel and pumpkin cake – like what I would hope that one of those pumpkin roll thingys would taste like.

P.S.: My wife noticed after I had started baking that there’s also an alternate recipe on the side of the box to instead create a pumpkin roll rather than the cake that you see above, and so while I may not be picking up another box to try it anytime soon, a little birdie did inform me that her Mom – well famous for enabling my pumpkin habit thus far – may very well mix this up when we come to visit around Christmastime, so stay tuned for more of that to come shortly…